ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Research Centre, Udhagamandalam organized a Kisan Gosthi cum Farmers’-Scientists interaction meet on 07.02.2024 under the Tribal Sub Plan Programme at the Athipadigai Village, Kotagiri Block, The Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. The event was organized with a theme ‘To promote Multi-tier Horticulture System for Resource Conservation in the Nilgiris’, especially among the down trodden tribal communities of the Nilgiris district. The event was participated by the scientists and technical staff of the ICAR-IISWC, RC, Ooty along with Dr L Rajendran, Associate Professor, KVK-TNAU, Ooty. About 50 native tribal farmers from the villages Athipadigai and Attadi were participated in the event. Dr Somasundaram Jayaraman, Head & Principal Scientist, ICAR-IISWC, Research Centre, Ooty had inaugurated the event along with other village leaders and dignitaries.
During his address, he elaborated about the importance of soil health management practices in hilly ecosystem and discussed about the natural resource management interventions/soil and water conservation technique’s developed by the Research Centre, Udhagamandalam. A technical session was held to educate the farmers about the theme area Multi-tier Horticulture System for Resource Conservation. Later, a farmers’-scientists interaction meet was organized in which farmers and scientists exchanged their ideas and shared their experiences in promote the sustainable horticulture production in the Nilgiris. The event was followed by the distribution of seedlings to establish the multi-tier horticulture production system in the beneficiary farmers’ field. During this event a total number of 8500 seedlings of coconut, arecanut, pepper, butter fruit, clove, tea and silver oak seedlings were distributed to the beneficiary tribal farmers. An exhibition was organized during this occasion displaying various soil and water conservation technologies developed by the Research Centre, Udhagamandalam. The campaign was concluded with the vote of thanks followed by National Anthem. The event was coordinated by Dr Sudheer Kumar Annepu, Scientist and Dr P Sundarambal, Principal Scientist.
